Search

Customers have come to expect good products and service. What blows them away is when companies go beyond the line of duty, giving customers more than they expect. Unexpected gestures are what turn a run-of-the-mill experience into one we’ll remember. Your employees have an important role to play in wowing customers by going beyond the call of duty. Small actions can not only transform an experience into a memorable one, but also change the perception of an organization in customers’ eyes. It can make the difference between a one-time transaction and a continuous business relationship. Moreover, it can turn customers into advocates and promoters.

Step 2: Follow-up With Thank-You’s and New Product/Service Intro’s
• Personalize it.
• Thank them
• Help them relive the experience
• Ask for feedback
• Invite them back
• Promote social sharing

Step 3: Host A Special Event For Your Best Customers
• Build Brand Awareness
• Generate New Customers
• Build Long Term Relationships With Current Customers
• Introduce Your New Products and Services
• Do Something Unexpected or Innovative

Step 4: Create Personal Relationship With Your Customers
• Communication is a contact sport, so do it early and often
• Reward loyal customers
• Go the extra mile
• Treat every client as your most important one
• Respond promptly

Step 5: Create Ways To Anticipate Your Customers Needs
• Get to know the customers
• Ask the right questions
• Customers appreciate alerts to products and services that can make their lives easier
• Anticipate potential problems and offer solutions beforehand
• Customer needs should be the driving focus of your company

Step 6: Offer Free Samples That Are Relevant To Your Customers Current Needs
• Spreads the word about your products and services
• Shows your generosity and helps to create brand loyalty
• Let’s your customers fall in love with what you have to offer
• Great opportunity to get customer feedback and make sure you are offering what they are looking for
• Reward your customers to spend a little more by offering free samples when they spend above a certain threshold

Being a successful business owner comes down to just a few things and doing them incredibly well. One of which, is continually building your repeat customer base. This is the Holy Grail when it comes to owning your own business and generating the kind of income that will keep you in business over the long term, as well as take care of you and your family.
If you would like more help understanding just how to implement these six steps into your own business, I have created a FREE video series that walks you through step-by-step and then gives you real-life examples of business owners just like you who have successfully done it so you can see how they would work in your own company. Here is the link:

One of the biggest challenges to most businesses no matter what type of business you have, traditional brick and mortar or online, the need to attract more customers is universal. If your sales are slow and your business is not seeing the rate of growth you would like it may be because you need more traffic to your place of business and website. So, how do you do that? How do you create more interest in your business, products, and consistently generate the kind of growth year after year that you would like?

I have a lot of information for you here so I have boiled it down into nuggets. If you would like more help I also have a free video series that covers everything here in depth and I will tell more about that in just a bit, but first let’s get started.

Step 3: Make sure you are offering the products and services your customers want to buy and not just the ones you want to sell.
• What is your best selling product or service and who is buying it?
• What are they using it for and how can you provide additional products or services that will help them even more?
• What other similar individuals, groups, or businesses could you also provide these types of products or services for?
•
Step 4: Emotionally engage and connect with customers
• Provide opportunities for customer feedback.
• Understand the needs, perceptions and expectations of its customers at an individual level.
• Seek out opportunities to create emotional connections with Guests whenever possible.
• Provide exceptional customer service.
• Make each transaction an interaction.

Step 5: Ask repeat customers to invite their friends to your place of business
• Host “Thank You” event for your customers and ask them to bring a friend.
• Participate in an event in your local community.
• Invite local media to cover event or offer a press release.
• Create synergistic partnerships with other business owners who share your customer base, but are not competitors.

I know this is a lot of information, but I hope this will help you to get started growing your customer base and developing your repeat customers. No matter what type of business you are in using these five key steps will get you results if you do them consistently and with excellence. If you have found this helpful and you would like more in depth help just click on the link below to enjoy a free video series that walks you through each of these steps and shows you how you can implement them into your own business. Here is your link:http://www.alexzandrad.com/

If you have a business question that you would like help with or an area that you would like more information on please post it below in the comment section. I love hearing from you and I do my best to answer as quickly as I can.

The first thing entrepreneurs do differently is not to wait for the recovery surge! An economic down turn is a great gift to anyone who is looking for opportunities because it has a way of weeding out the fluff and defining our greatest needs. As it happens these needs tend to be basic and ongoing even in a strong economy. For the wise entrepreneur they take advantage of the moment and establish themselves in meeting the greatest need for the greatest amount of people. Not only does this build a customer base, it also builds brand loyalty. Think about it for a moment, who would you be the most loyal to? Someone who met your need only when times were good or someone who was there for you through the dark times as well?

I encourage you to give careful thought to these business success principles, especially if your business has been struggling a bit.

1. Ask yourself what are the greatest needs of my customers?
2. How can I meet that need better than anyone else is doing so far?
3. How can I serve the greatest number of people?
4 How will my product or service bring increase and benefit to the lives of my customers?
5. How can I do this right now?

One final thought, if you are always looking after the best interest of your customer or client you can rest assured that financial success will follow. It is when businesses get greedy and self-centric that puts them on the road to financial ruin. If you want to take full advantage of the recovery, start now! Don’t wait until it gets here in full strength!

If you are going to introduce a new product or service make sure you have a high demand market that is not adequately being met by others in your industry.

Identifying a potentially successful market niche begins with determining the emotional motivation of your customers or clients. Ask the following questions to clarify your niche market ideas and identify the ones that will be worth your time and effort to pursue. This simple test can save a tremendous amount of time and money. Here is how to get started.

Ask yourself the four questions below when considering a niche market. If you get four yes’s then you have a good niche marketing idea and you should test it. If you don’t get all four yes’s then you need to fine tune your idea until you do. Use this test each time you are considering launching a new product or service and you will dramatically increase your chances of success.

2. Is my customer or client current searching for solutions to their most urgent need or problem?

3. Does my customer or client have few if any recognized options or solutions to their current problem or urgent need?

4. Is there a large group of people (1 in 500) who are currently looking for a solution right now?

If you have been able to conclusively answer these questions the chances are you have a good idea with a viable market and an opportunity to grow a successful business.

I hope this has given you a little guidance and I have a gift for you to help you grow your customer base even more! I have released a Free videos series with tons of step-by-step guidance to help you really jump-start your business this year and grow your customer base. The entire series will be delivered right to your inbox and it is absolutely FREE as my gift to you! You can also leave your comments or questions just under each video. I love hearing from you so keep the comments and questions coming, it helps me know what questions you would like answered next! Good luck! Here is the link:

This week I received a lot of questions and I do mean a lot, about marketing, identifying your target market, and how to create your own marketing message. So I decided to use this week’s blog post as a short course to help you get started. So here we go.

Your “Customer Base” is not the same as your “Target Market”. There is a world of difference and without having a clear understanding of just what that is and how to identify your “target market” you can’t expect to grow your business or perhaps even stay in business for very long. Your target market in not WHERE you sell your products and services, but rather WHO most urgently needs your products and services. It’s critical that you identify this information for the success of your business as quickly as possible.

Your “Marketing Message” should identify a FEATURE of your product or service and the ADVANTAGE and BENEFIT of owning and using your product or service. Let me explain it this way. State a selling feature of your product or service. Next state an advantage of that feature such as more power, ease of use, better function, etc. Now state the personal benefit your customer will enjoy when they own your product or service. You have just created your marketing message and your sales tool that will help your generate more profit and we all like that. Here is a little tip. A Feature is a type or quantity of something. It is also a logical or intellectual statement. So you want to see feature specifications spelled out clearly in black and white. Advantages and Benefits are a quality or condition of something, have an emotional value, and are best conveyed by the use of something visual such as a photo or physical display. Each product or service type should have its own “Marketing Message” as well as one over-all Marketing Message for your company.

If you have never had any experience identifying your target market or creating your marketing message before, I know that it can feel a little daunting, but I have the cure for that. I have a Marketing Message Creator that is super easy to use. Just fill in the blanks of the template with your business and product information and when you are done you have your very own marketing message that you can instantly use to on any products or services to help you generate more sales. The best part is that it is now available to you as part of my Small Business Toolkit and you can get yours now simply by clicking the link below.

If you have a different resource, that’s okay. It’s just important that you do it. There is a lot more to creating a successful marketing message than what I can convey here, but I hope this has helps to get you started. In the Marketing Message Creator that is included in the Small Business Toolkit I have already done most of the work for you so all you have to do is just fill in the blanks to a few questions and wha-la, you have identified your target market and created your first marketing message! These two things are worth their weight in gold as far as generating sales and growing your business. If you would like to start generating more sales this week just click on the link below now!

No matter how hard you try to prevent it, we all make mistakes. When it happens to you or a member of your staff you will have two choices. One is to minimize your personal or business culpability and expense. The other, to use this as a golden opportunity to build your brand and a lasting relationship with your customers. I recommend the later approach and that you make it your standard of how you do business. Here is a five steps to get you started.

Step One:Take full responsibility for your mistakes. This will result in lowering your customer’s defenses and help the process of amicably resolving the issue. This simple act will go a long way towards building a bond of trust between you and your customer and we all know that there is no more valuable business or personal asset than trustworthiness. Don’t make excuses! Just make it right….and then make it more than right.

Step Two: Let your customer know that you genuinely care about their frustration or disappointment. That means that you will have to talk less and listen more. Then sympathies with them by genuinely caring about their experience. As they are talking try mentally putting yourself in their shoes and experience on an emotional level what they have just gone through. Next and most importantly, ask what your business could do differently so that they or any other customer may never have to go through this again. You may be surprised at the answers you get back to this and it could be invaluable to taking your business to a whole new level and setting you above and beyond the rest of those in your same industry by guiding you how to provide an exceptional customer experience.

Step Three: Go the extra mile to make it right. It is easy to make a simple return, but it is important to make sure that your customer is also happy. Look for any opportunity to meet even an unspoken need like offering an additional solution to your customer’s need that may have nothing to do with you or your business, but saves them time, money, extra steps, etc… That means you will need to be fully engaged with your customer. Do they look tired and spent? Ask a co-worker to provide them with a refreshment while you continue to process their return. If your business is online this may be more difficult to do. I highly recommend the use of Skype or Face Time as a way to make their experience more personal. Ask questions about how and why they were using your product or service. This may give you insights how you can serve them more in unexpected ways.

Step Four:Add some extra and unexpected value in the way of extra products or services that are relevant to your customer. This could be in the way of a free sample which is a great way to introduce your customers to your new products and services.

Step Five: This is key! Follow up about a week later just to make sure your customer is happy and ask if they have had a chance to try out the free gift you provided them and how they liked it. Take it old school and send them a personal hand written note sent by snail-mail. The idea is to fully convey to your customer how important you think they are and how much you value them. And let’s face it, we could all use a bit more of that. Your customer is no different. This is the final and key step in this process of turning a mistake into an opportunity to create a personal relationship with your disgruntled customer and then with skill and care turn them into a raging fan!

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, this is a great time to focus on your customer relationships. If you would like more step-by-step help to grow your business and generate more sales, then you are going to need my Small Business Toolkit! It’s packed full of tips and tools that my small business clients just like you have successfully used to grow their business. These are the same techniques that have helped me build my own business development company from scratch into an international corporation with clients around the world. This comprehensive Small Business Toolkit 1s usually included with membership in the Small Business Academy. However, I am going to make it available to business owners like you for a limited time only. And yes, we ship anywhere in the world! Get yours now while it is still available!

One of the biggest frustrations business owners of any size company often have is not generating the amount of sales they would like. The level of anxiety this lack of revenue causes can range from mildly worrisome to debilitating fear. Often business owner’s line of thinking is, if only they could generate more sales then all their financial worries would be over.

Bills could be paid, employees could be hired, new equipment purchased, growth and expansion plans could move forward, goals would be reached, and personal financial concerns would be over. The fear and worry of having to let staff go or even worse, closing their business, would be a thing of the distant past.

It’s the fear of this kind of failure that moves entrepreneurs to find a way, look for that one elusive key that will change everything and turn their business around. What is it that will make their business a success? What is the secret that will finally put an end to their continual financial worry? What is it that will once and for all, get them out there and get their business noticed?

The answer, it starts with conveying the feeling of growth and progress in every action you take in your business. You want your customers to understand that your business is continually expanding and becoming more successful. Success breeds success and you want to let your customers know that as you grow and progress so will they. Your success will result in their success if they do business with you.

Your customers often share the same worries and concerns in their personal lives that you and I have experienced in our daily business activities. If you can remember this and create products or services that will resolve their issues, worries, concerns, provide simple solutions to their most pressing problems, and improve their overall daily experience you will have a loyal customer.

So how do you do this? How do you revolutionize the way you do business? It starts from within you. It begins in the way you think not only about your business, but also about how you live in general. It is about the way you live your daily life, how you conduct your daily activities and personal actions. This includes your time away from your business.

Even when you meet someone socially, completely outside a business context, with absolutely no thought of trying to create a deal or sell them anything, it is vital that you leave them feeling they are better off in having known you. Leave them with the feeling of personal increase and success.

You can do this by holding within you the unshakeable conviction you yourself, are on a path of growth and success. Let your internal faith that you are constantly becoming more, inspire you to fill your thoughts, focus your intent, and be the motivation behind every action you take.

Each day, do everything that day with the absolute certainty that you and your business are continually growing, expanding, and becoming more successful. Every action you take, every business decision you make, must be made to provoke and accommodate growth and success. In other words, do the things, take the actions, and make the decisions that will move you towards your goals. This must be your business lifestyle. It should also be the way you treat and engage your customers. You become a successful business owner by helping your customer become successful.

Look inside your soul and feel with full confidence and absolute certainty that you are becoming wealthier. And, as you are becoming wealthier you are causing others to also become wealthier and more successful. This could be everything from providing your customers with your products and services they need to get a job or even a promotion, to expanding your business and providing a job for someone within your own company. It could be to become a patron to your favorite charitable organization. It could be something as simple as providing your customer with just the product or service they needed to solve their problem and making them feel so valued that it turns their whole day around.

You do not need to brag about your success. Not only is it unseemly, it damages your brand and ultimately your credibility. Just feel deep within you and with resolute certainty that you and your company are continuously growing and becoming even more successful. Let this inner certainty guide your outer actions, and daily transactions with your customers towards success for all. Let each action you take, the tone in your voice, and the expression on your face, convey your inner peace and absolute assurance that your stresses and strains of financial worry are no longer a part of your daily business activities.

Have a comment or question about this week’s post? Let me hear from you! Post your own success stories or ask a question about how to move your own business forward to success! I love hearing from you and read every post personally!

Probably the number one question I receive is “How do I get more customers?” Without a strong customer flow as a business owner you also don’t have a strong cash flow and that can cause anxiety and stress on a number of levels. But what if you could turn that around starting today? I bet that would make you feel reinvigorated wouldn’t it? You would enjoy your business more because you were actively growing it. To help you do that I have put together some simple step you can use right away to help you build your customer base no matter what type of business you are in. So let’s get started.

80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. This is simply fact for almost all businesses. This means you need to make it a priority to find out which one in five of your customers are those who keep coming back for more of what you have to offer and then make every effort to keep them happy and buying.

Focus on long-term customers. Repeat customers are the holy grail of sales. They advertise your business for free to their friends, they help you forecast, they save you marketing money, and most importantly, they buy your product or service.

Repeat customers cost less than new ones. Studies show that it’s less expensive to bring existing customers back than to attract new ones. It makes sense, considering the expense of advertising, marketing, media, and other tools necessary to lure new customers.

Repeat customers are walking billboards. If a customer comes back to your business, chances are pretty good that he liked what he saw the first time around. And, from there, chances are they’re going to spread the word which is free publicity for you. To build repeat customers, be consistent. On the surface, a solid base of repeat customers might seem little more than a matter of providing excellent service or products. While there is truth to statement, your quality of service must be consistent to keep them coming back.

Hire the right people. Since your employees are on the front lines, their demeanor and interaction with clients can cement relationships that bring customers back to your business. Individuals who are positive, friendly, and really care about doing a great job is the first step. Anyone who is going to interact with customers—from the receptionist through to the collections department—has to understand the importance of creating a positive interaction with the customer.

Keep it personal. By definition, a repeat customer is someone you get to know. Nurture that by keeping your relationship as personal as possible. For instance, get to know customers by name. Connecting on a personal level with customers is one of the best competitive advantages there is. Everyone loves it when they go into your place of business and you remember their name and their favorite item or service.

Stay in contact. Encourage repeat business by staying in touch with your customers through a blog, newsletter, or some other vehicle that affords ongoing communication. A handwritten thank-you to customers with orders over a certain amount that includes a discount on their next purchase is a spectacular touch in today’s world of all things digital.

What is your favorite tip for growing your customer base and your business?